Menu expansion at fast food restaurants

[swampspruce]

@actualliberalnotoneofthose

Yet I don’t consider any of those dessert pastry food things to be breakfast in any sense. My wife/kids do. So, when my kids ask for donuts I like to be able to get some sort of egg sandwich. (I would consider the soup and sandwich to be more odd in a donut place. Except for, you know, egg sandwiches).

I realize that sounds inherently contradictory that I would rail against breakfast sandwiches and not “regular” sandwiches but I still remember when Timmy’s was pastries, coffee and soup/sandwich items. Their misguided attempt to be all things to everyone has resulted in an overall decrease in what made them good in the first place. Cost cutting measures like premade frozen dough and this plethora of items has made them shittier, not better, with time.

FWIW, I think even the coffee at McDs is better now than T-Hos , as are the breakfast items, and this is coming from someone who generally avoids the Clown whenever possible.

[That_Don_Guy]

@jz78817

never been to Five Guys, but IMO In-N-Out is massively, massively overrated. Their burgers are decent (but still a fast-food burger) and their fries are garbage.

I see it the other way around - the burger is good, but overpriced, but the fries are some of the best fast-food fries I have ever had (probably because they aren’t crispy).

@Smapti

I used to manage a Jack in the Box, and it was a pain in the butt - Jack likes to roll out a new menu item about once a month, and more often than not, it’ll include a new ingredient that employees have to learn how to prep and prepare with little notice.

When I saw this thread, the first thing that came to mind was JITB - especially the commercial from a few years ago:
A customer walks into a generic competitor’s fast food restaurant.
“Breakfast?” “Burger”
Jack then goes into a short spiel about his breakfast menu.
“Lunch?” “Burger”
Another spiel about the lunch options - “not just burgers.”
“Dinner?” “Burger”
Yet another spiel, this time about larger items for dinner.
In other words, the varied menu was a selling point for JITB.

[pulykamell]

@bump

Never would have thought of that, but it sounds like it would work really well!

I found a more detailed link here.

[Smapti]

@That_Don_Guy

In other words, the varied menu was a selling point for JITB.

Oh, it definitely was a selling point. How they expected us to execute that menu with a speed of service goal of 3 minutes and 30 seconds from when a car pulls up to the order box to when they leave the drive-thru, and cook everything to order (when most products have a cook time of 2-3 minutes), they were a little more vague on.

[No_umlaut_for_U]

Have to get on the McD’s coffee bandwagon. Best idea ever. Now, if they’d just bring back the chicken biscuits.
Didn’t the original McD menu expansion come from the Lenten fast, when burger revenue would just tank?

Today I just don’t think of the hamburger as the one item every kid will eat. Seems like it’s chicken fingers/nuggets instead. And I’m really one with the wagon wheel pasta with butter deal. Butter only was the only way I’d eat pasta until a light came down from the heavens, and alfredo sauce hit the US midwest.

[RTFirefly]

@TheChileanBlob

I work at a fast food place where we have a lot of different menu items. There are some things that come around seasonally each year, but most of our new offerings are just recombining ingredients that we use anyway.

Reminds me of Taco Bell’s Five Ingredients Combined In Totally New Way.

[RTFirefly]

@Tibby or Not Tibby

Well, sir, I wouldn’t bet too heavily on that assumption if I were you. As a wee lad, I hated spaghetti. For one thing, I couldn’t pronounce it. ”B’sketti” was as close as I could get. But, more importantly, I, along with every other non-communist kid in the world, hated tomatoes, including anything made from tomatoes, including tomato sauce (I, of course, made an exception for ketchup, because, y’know…who doesn’t like ketchup?).

The only type of pasta I would eat as a child was “wagon wheel pasta”, smothered in salt and butter…lots and lots of butter. No tomato sauce (aka Satan’s blood), just butter. If I was a good boy (which I nearly always was), I’d be rewarded with even more butter dolloped onto my wagon wheels. Life was good for boys that were good.

Comparing with the Firebug, currently age 7:
Likes spaghetti.
But eats it the way you ate your wagon wheel pasta - just with butter and salt.
Pronounced it ”P’sketti” (definitely more of a ‘P’ sound than a ‘B’, but otherwise right there)
Hates tomatoes and tomato sauce
Loves ketchup

But good question about the wagon wheels, because I remember them from way back, but can’t remember when I’ve seen them last. The Firebug is a bit of a messy eater with spaghetti, so I’d like to try them out on him, but I’d want to see if he reliably liked them before ordering 12 bags through Amazon per Lasciel’s link.

But in response to this:

Why the hell torture yourself trying to spin wiggly spaghetti, or linguini, or fettuccini onto your fork; or stab shells, or tubes, or whatever other ghastly shape there is in the vast world of pasta…when there are perfectly shaped wagon wheels available?

I’ve almost never seen anyone do the twirling thing in real life. I’ve always assumed that maybe native Italians, and some Italian-Americans, did that, and maybe a few of us Anglos did it as an affectation. But pretty much everyone I know uses the edge of their fork to cut a bite-sized chunk of spaghetti and sauce, then slides the fork under it to get it into one’s mouth. No muss, no fuss, occasional dangling spaghetti, but not much when it happens.

[Spud]

@RTFirefly

I’ve almost never seen anyone do the twirling thing in real life. I’ve always assumed that maybe native Italians, and some Italian-Americans, did that, and maybe a few of us Anglos did it as an affectation. But pretty much everyone I know uses the edge of their fork to cut a bite-sized chunk of spaghetti and sauce, then slides the fork under it to get it into one’s mouth. No muss, no fuss, occasional dangling spaghetti, but not much when it happens.

That is funny… my experience is the exact opposite. The only ones I see cutting the spaghetti are Moms doing it for their kids.

[silenus]

@Spud

That is funny… my experience is the exact opposite. The only ones I see cutting the spaghetti are Moms doing it for their kids.

Exactly. People who cut pasta would probably jack-light deer or take 17 items through the “15 or fewer” lane at the grocery store.